A.H. Brafman: 1931-2022

On 31 January 2022, Dr Abrahão Henrique Brafman, one of the United Kingdom's most admired child psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, passed away at the age of 90 years, after having enjoyed a distinguished career as a clinician, a teacher, and an author, as well as a much appreciated colleague to innumerable individuals, all of whom benefited from his wide-ranging wisdom.

Born on 8 April 1931, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Abrahão Brafman, known more familiarly as ‘Abe’, studied medicine in his native country, and then, in 1959, emigrated to London. Not long thereafter, he became a candidate at the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, and, after having pursued a five-times-weekly training analysis with Dr Paula Heimann, as well as clinical supervision from Dr Michael Balint, Dr Lois Munro, Mrs Eva Rosenfeld, and Dr Hanna Segal, he qualified in 1964.

Across his long career, Brafman served as a Consultant Psychiatrist in the National Health Service, specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. Over the years, Abe worked in a range of institutions, such as Queen Mary's Hospital, in Roehampton, in South West London, where he ran groups for under-fives and their parents, as well as University College Hospital in Central London, where, as an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, he introduced medical students to psychoanalytical concepts.

After Brafman retired from his many decades in the public sector, he expanded his private psychoanalytical practice in Hampstead, in North West London, and facilitated his clinical work with such reliability and professionalism that large numbers of patients yearned for appointments. Over the years, I referred many people to Dr Brafman, all of whom spoke with tremendous appreciation for the kindly and sensible way in which he engaged with their narratives of pain and distress.

Brafman will be best remembered for his extensive writing career, having first published in the English language while still in his 30s and having continued to do so until his fin